Nearly 15 people were refused to cross the Ukrainian-Russian border on March 1 due to having no foreign passport, spokesman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko reported.
“Over the past day, nearly 7,000 citizens of Ukraine crossed the border in the direction of Russia. The number of refusals was quite small: up to 15 people could not cross the border because they did not have the documents that were needed from yesterday to cross the border with Russia,” Demchenko told Interfax-Ukraine on March 1.
As reported, according to the government resolution No. 1056 dated Dec. 18, 2019, from March 1, 2020, the crossing of the state border with the Russian Federation will be carried out only if there is a passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad.
Demchenko stressed that these amendments were related to the rules of crossing the border exclusively in the direction of the Russian Federation, since those citizens who are already on the territory of Russia will be able to return to Ukraine according to the old rules, that means with a national passport of a citizen of Ukraine or a birth certificate (for children under 16 years old).
At the same time, the speaker explained that a trip with a foreign passport not only enhances security but also speeds up border crossing, because when internal passports or birth certificates were used during this procedure, border guards had to manually enter all the data into the database: last name, name, patronymic, document number, citizenship.
In addition, according to him, a passport is more difficult to counterfeit than an internal passport of a citizen of Ukraine, and there is no photo at all in the birth certificate.
The speaker recalled that the State Border Service and the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ukraine actively informed citizens about these changes in advance, and they relate exclusively the citizens of Ukraine, who cross the Russian-Ukrainian section of the border. According to him, people crossing the border accepted the changes normally, and most people were ready for them, as a few the refusals testify.
